[img]1979|right|Mr. Ridley-Thomas||no_popup[/img]In the aftermath of the Metro Board’s decision last Thursday to avoid acting on an 11-block tunnel on the Crenshaw-to-LAX light rail line, the South Los Angeles neighborhood’s most powerful elected official said of the tunnel’s prospects “I don’t know.”
Normally loquacious and outgoing, County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas was the opposite on this occasion. He was somber and succinct in response to probing questions.
“I am not sure about the state of the tunnel,” he said, “and I am limited in terms of how much I can discuss it because it is the subject of litigation” by the Crenshaw Subway Coalition and its CEO, Damien Goodmon.
Is the tunnel dead? the supervisor was asked.
“I would say there are settlement negotiations to be considered.”
Does that mean it will not exist?
“I don’t know what the outcome of that will be. It may end up in court if there is no settlement.”
Mr. Ridley-Thomas said the pending suit – scheduled to return to court in six weeks – was “part of the reason” discussion of undergrounding the light rail through, arguably the Crenshaw neighborhood’s most sensitive area, was minimized at the monthly Metro meeting last week.
“I think we will know in a matter of months whether a settlement will materialize,” he said, alluding to the Aug. 15 court hearing.
With an accent on abstraction, Mr. Ridley-Thomas said the tunnel – a high priority for the South L.A. community and evident non-issue for the Metro Board – “is a…” and there was a lengthy pause.
At no point did he indicate support for the single-minded objective of his constituents. He suggested they should be grateful for what they got – one of their two goals, a station at Leimert Park Village. While the station was pushed hard, this was regarded as secondary to the tunnel because of the potential danger to schoolchildren in the 11-block area and the five-year-long construction disruption to small and mid-size businesses in the Crenshaw corridor.
“I think (the tunnel) is an unfinished piece of business in the minds of some constituents,” Mr. Ridley-Thomas said. “I feel like what began as a $600 million bus line ends up being a $2 billion rail line, has impressed so many people far and wide, including a Leimert Park Station, until it reduces to the following:
“You can’t get everything you want into a project.”
Has the Crenshaw neighborhood been treated fairly by the MTA?
“In the final analysis, the argument can and will be made that this community did very well.
“And I would say, I am not done. I indicated (last Thursday) I am introducing business mitigation fund proposal for those businesses who are harmed –pursuant to what happened in Portland, in Seattle, in Minneapolis. Transit can be very disruptive, and it can adversely affect small businesses that causes them in a way not to rebound.”
Indeed the business fund proposal would not be a pathway to a tunnel, said Mr. Ridley-Thomas, “but it would cure one of the community’s significant concerns. The tunnel is approximately a $200 million proposition.”
Returning to the MTA’s treatment of the black neighborhood, Mr. Ridley-Thomas said that “in light of what happened (last Thursday) and in light of what is to come, it would be difficult to make the argument they have been treated unfairly.”
